Fast Food And Obesity: Factors Of America's Rising

Darian Love

AP English

Dawn Bromberg

March 17th, 2017

Fast Food and Obesity: Factors of America’s Rising Obesity

Obesity- a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body that affects not just appearance, but disease processes as well. This is the Webster definition of obesity, which, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016, affects more than 36.5% of U.S. adults. Fast food is a main contributor to obesity. The caloric content that fast food contains contributes to the already high amount of calories that most American adults consume on a daily basis. Because most adults are busy with jobs or children and this fast food is so easily accessible and prevalent, it

According to the Mcdonald’s nutrition calculator on their home website, one large Big Mac meal with a Coca-Cola would be 1,340 calories, 52 grams of fat, 193 grams of carbs, 1320 mg of sodium, and 13 grams of saturated fat. Based on a 2,000 calorie diet, that’s 67% of recommended daily calories, 80% of daily fat, 64% of daily carbs, 55% of daily sodium, and 66% of daily sodium, all on one meal. For people who eat out every meal, or even every day, that’s extremely unhealthy. In Lauri Scherer’s Fast Food, Scherer talks about how fast food is full of unhealthy chemicals and salts, sugars, and fats, and the fact that restaurants are often unsanitary, not up to code, and many items in many places are half of the calories needed in a day and over half the amount of fat. “Beef will rot. Bread will rot. But what about a McDonald’s burger? Karen Hanrahan saved a McDonald’s burger from 1996, and oddly enough, it looks just as ‘appetizing’ and ‘fresh’ as a burger you might buy today” (Scherer 13). With all of the preservatives that are in fast food nowadays, over half of the food is all sodium and preservatives. With another section of this book, Scherer states that in Starbucks’ lattes, the caramel syrup alone contains “sugar, water, fructose, natural and artificial flavor, salt, caramel color (with sulfites), potassium sorbate (preservative), citric

For example, a medium-sized salad at McDonald’s costs roughly $6, while a 20-piece chicken nugget costs $5. A large fry for less than two dollars can be bought that can fill you up and give you a lot of food, but a side salad is much more expensive. According to a study done by NBC, "We have a survival instinct that drives us to eat constantly because in human history starvation was the problem" (Carroll, Fernstrom). The study says that when food is seen being discounted or offered at a lower price, we feel the need to accept it because a survival instinct is felt and we always need to get the best deal to get as much food as possible. Some researchers have argued that inaccessibility to fresh fruits and vegetables may be part of America’s obesity problem, but the conductors of this research, Linda Carroll and Madelyn Fernstrom, retorted with data that showed that thats fruits and vegetables have become increasingly available and affordable in the past decade through lowered prices and accessibility through food pantries and food stamp programs for low-income families. Through a study done by Lisa Powell and Frank Chaloupka, results were found that show that while the effects differed in magnitude, “in some cases they were larger for low–socioeconomic status (SES) populations and for those at risk for